Dapper Labs, the company behind the Ethereum-powered blockchain game CryptoKitties, announced early September that they would be funding and developing their own blockchain called Flow. In 2020, the platform will be able to decentralize apps at scale.
Today we unveil Flow: a fast, efficient, and developer-friendly blockchain built for consumer audiences and entertainment applications.
Flow will launch in 2020 with decentralized experiences from Dapper Labs and others. @withflow_ #FlowNetworkhttps://t.co/7H5ODGYO34 https://t.co/D4OYoGZahS
— Dapper Labs (@dapper_labs) September 12, 2019
Bitcoin and Ethereum show how crypto can make the world of finance more open and transparent; Flow will do the same for consumers of entertainment and culture.” With that in mind, the company’s objective is to replicate the viral success of their CryptoKitties venture. When it first launched in 2017, the game ignited an online frenzy. After all, who else had thought of trading and collecting digital cats like rare baseball cards? Though the euphoria may have died down, it’s worth remembering that the CryptoKitties craze was so intense that it significantly slowed down the Ethereum blockchain network in which collectibles were stored — all thanks to the thousands of transactions happening simultaneously. Fortunately, Flow is built to take on even more transactions than Ethereum. While details have yet to be revealed about its entertainment and gaming partnerships, Dapper Labs teased that it may design digital collectibles around musicians and other pop culture icons. “The main goal is to create new avenues where the fans of our artists can explore their fandom, and engage with the artists in new and different ways that they haven’t done before,” said Jeff Bronikowski, who is Warner Music Group’s Senior Vice President of Global Digital Business Development and oversees the company’s innovation group. Blockchain has always been associated with money-related industries like banking and finance. However, many of the gaming industry’s problems are actually being solved by the technology. For instance, one of the biggest issues for gamers is their intellectual property rights over their digital assets, which are essential components in the gaming experience. In line with this, Special Counsel’s article on intellectual property law explains that protection over copyrights covers ‘original works of authorship’, such as literature, music, pictures, and sound recordings. Unfortunately, the legislation isn’t as transparent when it comes to intangible digital property rights. Blockchain solves this dilemma because it supports a separate, secure, and decentralized record of digital assets — from avatars and skins, to anything else of value in games. This grants gamers complete control and ownership over their digital properties.
Yeah Borderlands 3 deleted my save. Looks like I'll have to start over. I'm guessing this is cloud save related. PSA do NOT turn on cloud saves!
— Destin Legarie (@DestinLegarie) September 15, 2019
Besides full ownership, blockchain is contributing more to the gaming industry than you think. Another example is reducing in-game transaction costs. Because it eliminates the need for third parties, some companies have been allowing the use of crypto to let players make direct payments. It is also much more secure than traditional payment methods like credit cards — a welcome addition to what can only be described as a cybercrime crisis in America. As the gaming world continues to expand, technology will too. Already, it has contributed so much to the monetization and creation of games as we know them, and can only do more moving forward.
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